When I got my ticket for the Forecastle Festival, my friend told me I had to listen to Atmosphere perform—it was an absolute must, and I’m glad I did. Atmosphere is a group comprising of rapper Slug, DJ Ant, keyboardist Erick Anderson and guitarist Nate Collis from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who won over the crowd, just as expected!

Starting off with “Trying to Find a Balance,” to old school stuff like “Scapegoat” from his 1997 album Outkast, to his newer songs such as “Sunshine,” “Puppets,” and “Guarantees,” it didn’t matter what Atmosphere performed, the crowd was having an absolute blast shouting out the lyrics, first pumping and nodding their heads to the beat. Also, not to forget, learning DJ Slug’s new dance: Japeto (at least that’s how it sounded like it should be spelt). As Slug explained, all you had to do was put your hand up in the air with two fingers like scissors and “cut some strings.” Everyone loved it. The Great Lawn was full of hundreds of people cutting some strings to his song “Puppets.”

Slug won many hearts at the Forecastle Festival on Friday, but it wasn’t just with his raps, it was also his down to earth personality and his way of connecting to his fans. “You’re my kind of people,” he said, “not because you buy my records… because you all seem like the kind of people to chill around with some cans of beer.” He also apologized for telling the crowd to put their hands up and make noise all the time. Little does he know, his fans would lose their voices to his music regardless.